Cash injection for Wilex

27.08.2012 - The German antibody specialist Wilex AG has completed a capital increase to strengthen its capital base. The biotech sold 6.5 million new shares at a price of €3.70.

However not all the shares were sold for cash. As contribution in kind, the company’s largest shareholder Dievini Hopp BioTech Holding GmbH, the investment vehicle of the billionaire and SAP founder Dietmar Hopp, converted an existing loan granted to Wilex amounting to approximately €7.8m to 2.1 million new shares. This represents 32.5% of the total volume of the capital increase.This reduces Wilex' financial liabilities without adversely affecting cash reserves. Finally, Wilex receives gross proceeds of around €16.1m from the cash portion of the transaction. The company now owns about €24m in cash. Wilex runs a number of early and mid-stage clinical trials. However, the most important one is the phase III with the kidney cancer antibody Rencarex. Results for the test with the anti-EpCAM-mAb are anticipated for the end of this year. Rencarex is partnered with Prometheus Labs in the US.

29.07.2015 Newly founded Mereo BioPharma has acquired three mid-stage clinical assets from Novartis. In turn, the Swiss pharma concern will hold a stake in the UK company. Other investors are also on board.

24.07.2015 Biotech companies across Europe continue to raise cash on the public markets, generating €3bn in total financing proceedings in the first half of 2015. Compared to 2014, this is almost twice as much.

23.07.2015 US money keeps flowing into Europe's biotechs. As the race for the peanut allergy market heats up, NASDAQ listed French biotech DBV has announced the successful closing of US$281m (€256m) share offering for its allergy products.

16.07.2015 Sanofi has announced plans to restructure its business in five standalone global business units starting in January 2016. The goal is to promote growth and help the company launch a catalogue of new drugs over the next five years.

15.07.2015 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has become the first drugmaker to join the Francis Crick Institute. It is a consortium made up of six scientific and academic institutes to conduct research and drug development in the UK. The new institute is set to become a world-leading centre of biomedical research and innovation.

10.07.2015 Karolinska Development has slashed the reported value of its portfolio by almost half by revising its valuation model for early stage companies and divesting its shares in pain med maker Pharmanest.

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